


Face Off

by Spurlunk



Category: Captain America (Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-27
Updated: 2014-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-20 22:41:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1528328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spurlunk/pseuds/Spurlunk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve finds Bucky, then Bucky finds Steve. Sam and Natasha are there too. There is a cat, several small children, some pizza, and reality TV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Face Off

The Winter Soldier never left DC. He also didn't make any particular effort to hide. Steve found him easily, but Sam held him back. The last time Steve had confronted him, Sam reminded him, he had ended up in the hospital for days. Steve recognized that he didn't think clearly when it came to his best friend, who until recently the thought he had lost forever, so he did as Sam said. The two of them hung back, following the Winter Soldier around town. He looked different, wearing grungy clothes and a baseball cap pulled low to obstruct his face, his greasy hair hanging in his eyes. Still, Steve never lost him, not even when he darted into crowds of loud tourists, and sometimes Sam had to jog a little to catch up. Steve would know Bucky anywhere, even if he was the Winter Soldier now.

The Winter Soldier didn't seem to have any particular goal. He walked around the Mall. Bought a hot dog and ate it. Sat there on a bench for a long time. He went into a museum. Then he came back out. As the day wore on, Steve did not try to hide himself. He never walked right up to the Winter Soldier, but he was close enough that there was no way that he didn't know he was there.

"Maybe we should leave him alone. He knows you're here. If he was ready to talk to you, he would have by now," Sam said. Steve knew that he was right, but he stayed near the Winter Soldier for the rest of the day, just to make sure that his friend had a place to sleep. He followed him to the train, and then on a bus, and watched him go check into a motel. Then he did as Sam said - he left the Winter Soldier alone, and went home.

Steve was staying with Sam, because SHIELD had been monitoring his old apartment and he didn't really want to be alone. Sam had made it clear he would follow Steve anywhere, and he wouldn't even let Steve help pay the rent. Sam and Steve got into a daily routine. In the morning, Steve would be ready and waiting when Sam woke up. They went running together, Sam complaining the entire time about how unfair it was that Steve was so much faster, and then they came back to the apartment, taking turns in the shower and eating breakfast. Sam headed off to work, and Steve usually went to find the Winter Soldier, following him around DC. He brought along his iPad and notebook, crossing things off of his list as he looked them up, and adding on more items as they occurred to him. He usually grabbed lunch from a food truck. He tried a different one every day. His favorite was the one that sold Korean food, because they gave such large bowls, with rice and meat and vegetables and sauces, that it was actually enough for his large appetite. Then, in the afternoons, he volunteered. Sometimes he went to soup kitchens, sometimes he went to animal shelters. Usually these places required you to sign up ahead of time, but once Steve told people who he was, they were happy for him to be there, and never turned him away. He liked to be useful, and it made him happy to be helping others.

The day that Bucky showed up, Steve was in a hospital. He was in the Pediatric Ward, sitting on a chair that was about ten sizes too small for him in a play room, surrounded by a handful of children in hospital gowns. There were crayons and construction paper on the colorful plastic tables, and some parents and nurses hanging back by the door. Steve was drawing pictures of each kid, and they were drawing pictures of him. He took every one and said something specific he liked about it to each kid. Some of them held the sketches that he gave them like they were made out of glass, others crumpled them close to their chests and the rest ran to show their parents.

"Steve," a man's voice said, and he looked up so fast his neck hurt. He would recognize that voice more than he knew his own. The Winter Soldier was standing there. He had taken off his hat and was holding it one hand, his body language much less tense than usual. His hair was tied up in a ponytail, but he hadn't shaved in a while, so he was definitely not looking his best.

"Is your arm made out of metal?" one little boy asked in an excited, high-pitched voice, and for a minute the Winter Soldier looked at a complete loss for words. Steve was just about to get up and say something when it was like a switch was flicked.

"Yeah, kid, it is, you wanna see?" Bucky asked, with the same smirk and charm that Steve remembered so clearly. He took off his jacket and rolled up the sleeve of his shirt, just high enough to expose the metal but also obstruct the red star. The Winter Soldier's attacks in DC had been televised, and the star was clearly visible on camera. So he was careful.

"Yeah!" the kid responded, and within minutes most of the kids had forgotten about Steve to go touch Bucky's metal arm and see how it worked. Steve was smiling so hard he was pretty sure his jaw was going to hurt later, and his eyes were brimming with tears. Bucky met his friend's eyes over the heads of the children, and smiled at Steve, but it was a sad smile. Steve knew when he looked into his friend's eyes that the Bucky he saw before him was not the Bucky he had once known, and he never would be. Steve didn't care. He had his friend back.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like Bucky was going to get free of the kids clamoring around him anytime soon, and whatever tension the parents and nurses might feel about a dirty, scruffy man playing with their children was assuaged by his obvious charm and Steve's tacit approval. Steve gathered up the drawings the kids had given him and put them in his bag, walking out into the hallway. He usually made it a point to go visit the children who were too sick to come down to the playroom when he was here.

Bucky found him sitting on a hospital bed, playing Uno with a bald little girl who was hooked up to an assortment of machines and tubes, her mother sitting with a book in a chair by the window. He cleared his throat, and Steve knew who it was without turning around.

"Let me just finish this game, okay? Can't let Frankie here beat Captain America, can I?" he said. Frankie smiled, and won the game. Steve said his farewells, gave her a gentle hug, and  received grateful thanks from her mother before joining Bucky in the hallway.

"Thank you for giving me time to figure things out," Bucky said as they got into the elevator.

"Sam told me that you might need some."

"Sam. The guy with wings."

"Yeah. I've been living with him. He's a good guy."

"I'm sorry I shot at him."

"You weren't yourself, Bucky, it's okay." Steve said. He suddenly turned and grabbed Bucky in a fierce hug. It took a few moments, but Bucky hugged him back. When the elevator door opened in the lobby, Natasha was standing there. She gave them a look, and Steve and Bucky broke apart. She didn't comment on anything, in fact, she was still breathing hard, trying to catch her breath. Steve immediately knew something was wrong. Natasha almost never was out of breath.

"We need to get out of here, now. Move!" she said. Steve and Bucky obeyed, following Natasha out of a back exit and down the street.

"What's going on?" Steve asked. He didn't have to run at full speed to keep up with her.

"I was tracking down some rogue SHIELD agents. I don't know, I think they're HYDRA, but they're not following any orders I can tell. They just want the Winter Soldier. To use him as a weapon. I tracked you both to the hospital, and I needed you out of there. I can't have another hospital full of children on me."

"He's not the Winter Soldier anymore," Steve said.

"I'll always be the Winter Soldier," Bucky said, but then before anyone could say anything else, he took a sharp right turn and headed down the street, the others following behind him. Steve took a moment to look behind him, and he saw a half-dozen armed men following them. They hadn't drawn their weapons, and a less observant person might just think they were random pedestrians, but from the way they were carrying themselves, Steve knew.

"Come on," Bucky said, leading the way down the steps to the Metro. He wove in and out of the throngs of tourists, pushing his way into the station by just sliding along behind someone else who had slid their Smartcard through. Natasha did the same, but Steve had his metro pass in his pocket so he slid it in and went on through. They slid into the crowded train just as the doors closed, and squeezed their way to a more central location in the train.

"I didn't see them get on," Steve said.

"They're smart, they'll be waiting at the next station." Natasha said.

"We can't fight them here, there are too many people." Bucky said. Steve was so happy to hear him say that.

"Come on, I have a plan." Steve said. When the train stopped, he got out and led the way to switch cars, so that they were at the back of the train. The compartment was about half full, and Natasha yanked open the doors connecting the two cars.

"Everybody out, go through there, please just do what I say," she said. Nobody seemed willing to obey, and she let out an exasperated huff, pulling out a gun and pointing it at them. Steve noticed that the safety was on.

"Get out of here, now!" she yelled, and this time people listened. Steve, Bucky, and Natasha waited. When the train pulled into the next station, the SHIELD agents got on. They didn't wait for the doors to close to start shooting. Steve ducked behind the seats, letting the agents use up their ammunition. Bucky waded right in, tackling two agent and disarming them, then using the gun to shoot them once, clean and efficient. Natasha was the only one who was armed, and she took out three more. That left Steve with two of the biggest guys, and without his shield, he did his best, but they were very talented fighters, and he was used to fighting with his shield.

The door between the compartments opened and two transit police officers came in, guns pointed at the five of them. Steve froze, and the train came to a stop, the doors opening. The two men who were still standing took off running, across the platform and into the train waiting on the other side. Natasha ran after them, but the doors slammed shut and she didn't make it. She let loose what Steve assumed were filthy words in Russian, and walked back over. Steve was calmly explaining who he was, and what was going on. Thankfully, it didn't take that much discussion for the security officers to lower their weapons and let them go. Steve didn't think he'd ever get used to the special treatment he got, but he had to admit it sometimes had its perks.

Though they were far from home, near the end of the Orange line, none of the three of them wanted to take the Metro back. They had had enough trains for a while. Natasha got into the second cab waiting at the Metro station's parking lot, and they took it back to Sam's apartment in Rosslyn.

Sam was a little bit taken aback to open the door and see not only Steve, but Natasha and Bucky as well.

"Hi?" he said.

"Hey, Sam," Natasha said with a rare smile, and Sam smiled right back at her. Those two had liked each other from the moment they set eyes on each other. Steve loved it when his friends loved each other.

"Bucky showed up at the hospital, and then we got into some trouble on the Metro with some agents who were chasing him, but it's taken care of now." Steve explained.

"I don't think they'll be coming after him anytime soon, not now that they know that he's with you. They're a small operation. Not equipped to fight Captain America," Natasha said. Bucky gave Sam an awkward nod, and Sam nodded back. Natasha knelt down to greet Steve's cat, Maggie, who purred happily and wound herself between Natasha's legs.

"She peed on my bed again. I swear, she does it just to piss me off." Sam said.

"Maggie likes me though, don't you, baby? I think she just has discerning taste," Natasha said. Sam mumbled something under his breath, and pushed a few things aside so that they could sit in the living room. Steve sat down in the middle, and Bucky and Sam immediately plopped down on either side of him. Natasha sat on the armchair opposite, curling up and calling Maggie over to her. The cat had other ideas, walking right over to Bucky and meowing insistently at his feet until he picked her up and put her in his lap. Bucky pushed some of her gray fur aside to expose the collar she had around her neck. It was red, white and blue, with the stars and stripes.

"Whose idea was this?" he asked.

"Not mine." Steve said.

"It was an anonymous gift, left on our doorstep," Sam said.

"From me," Natasha interjected with a mischievous smile. Steve rolled his eyes good-naturedly.

"So, are any of you as hungry as I am?" Sam asked, and Steve nodded.

"I haven't eaten anything but hotel breakfasts and fast food for days," Bucky said.

"I could eat," Natasha said. Sam went to go order the pizza, and Steve looked at Bucky, who was still petting Maggie as she purred contentedly in his lap.

"Do you want to talk about ... things?" he asked.

"No," Bucky said, not looking at him.  Steve's face fell.

"Oh. Um. Okay. What do you want to do?"

"We could watch TV," Natasha suggested. She grabbed the remote and turned it on, flipping through channels until she got to the one she wanted.

"Ooh, Face Off is on," she said.

"Which season is it?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, they're doing aliens inspired by food items," Steve said.

"That's a good episode, I can tell you who wins, because - " Sam began.

"No spoilers!" Natasha shouted.

"You've seen every single episode of Face Off, it's not a spoiler for you."

"But it is for Steve! And I bet Bucky hasn't seen a single episode of this show before."

"I've been a little busy," Bucky said.

"You'll love this show, it's a competition between makeup artists where they create monsters, like in the horror movies we used to watch. Technology has gotten so much more advanced, if you saw one of these aliens you might think it was real," Steve said.

"Oh yeah?" Bucky replied, his eyes crinkling up at the edges with an affectionate smile. Steve grinned back.

"Yeah."

"Pizza's here!" Sam exclaimed, jumping up to get the door.

"One pepperoni, one vegetable, and one cheese - hey, is that Captain America?" the delivery boy asked, peering over Sam's shoulder. Sam handed him some money and shut the door hastily.

"Nope, no Captain America here. No Captain of anything here. Thanks, bye," he said, and set the pizzas on the table. The four of them immediately dug in with gusto. Natasha moved over from her chair to the floor so that she could see the TV better, leaning against Steve's legs, and Sam propped his feet up on the coffee table. Bucky took pieces of pepperoni off of his slice of pizza and fed them to Maggie one by one. Steve yawned and stretched, putting one arm around Sam, and one around Bucky. He smiled to himself, and leaned back in his seat. His life might still be more confusing than ever, but right now, right here, he didn't think he could possibly be happier.


End file.
